Bing Topics Portfolio: Find Topic Gaps for AI Search

Microsoft has just announced Bing Topics Portfolio. And it could be good news for improving AI search rankings by improving your topical coverage.

Bing Topics Portfolio groups the AI search queries where your site is cited into broad topics. It shows:

• How big a topic is
• How competitive a topic is, and
• Where other sites get cited, and your site doesn't.

The last part makes this an interesting way to find topic gaps in your content. 

Exploding Topics is designed to help you find trends before they take off. And in all kinds of content, being early can lead to explosive growth. That's why I'm very interested to see how Microsoft develops this area of Bing AI Performance reporting.

In this article, we'll break down what Bing Topics Portfolio shows, how it differs from Bing's earlier Topics report, its limits, and how to use it for content planning.

To check how AI tools describe your brand right now, try our free AI visibility checker.

New Bing Topics Portfolio at a Glance

• Bing Topics Portfolio is a new beta tab in the AI Performance report, next to Citations & Pages
• Microsoft announced the report on October 13th, 2026
• It's the first time Bing has shown you queries you're missing, not just the ones you already win. However, sites that don't have a significant presence in Bing may not see it.
• Each topic has three measures: Topic Size, Sites Cited, and Queries 
• Opportunity Queries list queries where other sites are cited and yours is not, with citation volumes shown as ranges 
• You can show one, two, or three months worth of data

What Does Bing Topics Portfolio Show?

Bing Topics Portfolio shows a personalized list of the topics where your site has a meaningful presence in AI-generated answers, with three measures of size and competition beside each one.

Image: Microsoft Bing

The topics come from grounding queries, which are the short search phrases an AI system uses to fetch sources for an answer.

So each topic in the report is a broad cluster of related grounding queries, according to Microsoft's announcement.

Here's a breakdown of the columns in the topic table, based on Bing's definitions:

Column	What It Measures	What It Tells You
Topic	A cluster of related grounding queries where your site appears	Topics AI search associates with your site
Topic Size	Approximate total citations across all sites for the topic	How much AI search demand there is for that topic
Sites Cited	Approximate number of sites cited for queries in the topic	How much competition there is for the topic
Queries	Approximate number of distinct grounding queries in the topic	How broad the topic is

Bing builds the list from your own site's activity, not from a generic list. That means two sites in the same niche can see different topic portfolios, and it also makes it interesting for SEO and GEO work.

For example, the Sites Cited column may reveal a large topic surface with relatively low competition.

However, I wouldn't necessarily take this report at face value because it's in beta, and there is some room for improvement.

What Are Opportunity Queries in Bing Topics Portfolio?

Opportunity queries in Bing Topics Portfolio are essentially a new type of content gap analysis.

This page shows you grounding queries where other sites are cited in AI answers, but your site is missing.

Image: Microsoft Bing

Below the topic table, a Top Opportunity Queries list shows the areas where you have the most room for growth.

Citation volumes for opportunity queries appear as ranges, so the data can be vague, and sometimes not super helpful.

In Bing's own example screenshot, we can see a two-letter query ("uu") and a login query for a coding tool. That's the wrong intent.

But new data about AI visibility is still helpful, and since the report is in Beta, I'm hopeful we'll see some refinement over time.

What Do You See Inside a Topic in Bing Topics Portfolio?

When you click a topic in Bing Topics Portfolio, you can see:

• Topic size
• Your own site's citations
• A very rough estimate of query count

Image: Microsoft Bing

Below them, the queries are split in two:

• Your Grounding Queries: the top queries in the topic where your site already appears
• Opportunity Queries: the gaps: the top queries in the same topic where other sites appear and yours does not,

You can see which topics already earn citations for your site, then compare them with the ones you might be missing.

How Is Bing Topics Portfolio Different From Bing's Earlier Topics Report?

Bing Topics Portfolio is different because it adds data from across all sites and shows you opportunities to be cited. Bing's older Topics report, which was added in a June 2026 update, only groups the queries where your own site was already cited.

Here's a breakdown of how the two features compare:

Feature	Topics (June 2026)	Topics Portfolio (October 2026)
Groups cited queries	Yes	Yes
Shows topic size across all sites	No	Yes (approximate)
Shows number of sites cited	No	Yes (approximate)
Shows citation gaps	No	Yes (range)
Status	Preview	Beta

Neither feature lists competing domains, although Topics Portfolio's opportunity queries can include a rival's brand name occasionally. 

For a full walkthrough of the original report, see our guide to using Bing's AI Performance dashboard.

What Are the Limits of Bing Topics Portfolio?

Bing Topics Portfolio is a beta feature built on AI-generated topic labels, which you may feel are not correct.

All data is approximate, so I'd say this is another report to use as a source of information rather than a definitive roadmap for your content strategy.

Microsoft also warns that:

• Niche topics may not appear
• Branded queries can appear as opportunities, including a competitor's brand name, so discretion is needed
• Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are vague or approximated

There are other gaps to keep in mind. The data covers Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and "select partner integrations", according to Bing's February announcement. Bing doesn't name those partners.

And of course, the report doesn't cover Google AI Overviews, which are likely to be more important to you because they're more widely used.

It's also important to keep in mind that a citation on its own is not necessarily a measure of success. Citations, traffic, and clicks all need to be recorded to get a complete picture.

How to Use Bing Topics Portfolio for Content Planning

As a content marketing professional of 16 years (and counting), I think Bing Topics Portfolio is most useful for content planning when you start optimizing the topics you already own. This is often easier than launching straight into new topics.

Once you have a good grasp of your strongest topic areas, you can work outward from there.

And since this data is brand new, I would exercise some caution, particularly if you use AI and automation to create content. The list will require some filtering, and the process of actually actioning the suggestions will require human oversight.

Ultimately, you know your audience, and you know which topics are likely to be in demand.

For agencies, Topics Portfolio could add a new dimension to client reports, with some caveats. Our post on what to include in SEO and GEO reports covers how to present AI visibility data to clients.

How Does Bing Topics Portfolio Compare With Google Search Console's AI Reporting?

Bing Topics Portfolio shows queries, topic size and missed opportunities, while Google Search Console's AI report shows impressions and nothing more.

Google introduced Generative AI performance reports in Search Console on June 3, 2026, and had rolled them out to all websites worldwide by August 31, 2026. Here's a breakdown of what each report shows as of October 2026:

Data	Bing AI Performance	Google Search Console Generative AI Report
AI surfaces covered	Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI summaries, partners	AI Overviews and AI Mode
Main metric	Citations	Impressions
Queries	Yes (grounding queries, sampled)	No
Topic grouping	Yes	No
Data from other sites	Yes (Citation Share, Topic Size, Sites Cited)	No
Missed queries	Yes (Opportunity Queries)	No
Clicks from AI answers	No	No

Neither report shows citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity or the Gemini app, so you still need a third-party tool for a full view of AI search. Our roundup of competitor AI visibility tools compares the main options. 

What's Next for Bing Topics Portfolio?

Bing Topics Portfolio is likely to change during its beta. You can provide feedback in the app, and I'm hoping that means it'll be improved.

The announcement doesn't say whether click data will be added to the AI Performance report. That would be the main change to watch.

For content teams, each update has moved the report closer to a planning tool. Topics Portfolio is the first version that lists specific queries you're missing, not just the ones you already win.

For more on AI search visibility, take a look at:

• How to Use Bing's AI Performance Dashboard to Grow Your LLM Visibility
• How I Use Semrush to Identify AI Visibility Opportunities
• How to Rank on AI Search Engines in 2026: Practical LLMO Guide

Bing Topics Portfolio shows your gaps in Microsoft's AI answers. To find the same kind of gaps in ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, try the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit for free. Its prompt research and competitor analysis show the topics and prompts where your brand is missing, so you can plan content for every major AI platform. Then use Exploding Topics Pro to spot the next rising topics before they explode.